IAS jobs: PM orders reservation for disabled

IAS jobs: PM orders reservation for disabled

Sunday, January 23, 2005 (New Delhi):

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has issued orders to reserve 3 per cent of the IAS jobs in CSE 2005-06 for persons with disability.

As per the orders, 3 of the 85 posts for IAS this year will now go to persons with disabilities such as low vision or blindness, hearing impairment and cerebral palsy.

The ministries controlling other central services - the Indian Police Service, Indian Foreign Service and Indian Forest Service - have also been told to examine the applicability of the Physical Disability Act, 1995, and reservation of 3 per cent in these services.

"This is the demand of the day and we have to be sympathetic to their needs," said Suresh Pachauri, Minister for Personnel.

Singh takes action

The Ministries will submit their report to the Appointments Committee of Cabinet in three months.

The orders came after Manmohan Singh approved the appointment of M Satish, a physically challenged candidate who qualified the examination in 2002 to the Indian Revenue Service.

Satish, who secured rank 249 in the examination, had written to Singh after he was denied the IRS for being physically challenged (right hand polio).

A step forward…

Like Satish, there are many other physically challenged persons who will now get a chance if they qualify in the examination.

"After the Supreme Court's intervention, visually challenged students were allowed to take the exam. But in the past 13 years, no student has got through," said Ravi Arora, Physically Challenged Officer.

"As I stay in Delhi, I know that there are no seats. But what about students from Kerala, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh? They think they have failed," added Arora.

Three seats out of 85 IAS vacancies might not seem like much. But considering there are around 800 civil service jobs offered every year, today's decision could go a long way in addressing a major complaint of a large section of Indian society.

from ndtv.com